The Milk Run to Hawaii!

[jpc763]

I own an EOY in Oahu and have occupied it every time during my kids spring break (only 2 more years!!!). We are a family of 4 so airfare was by far the hardest thing to pull off cost effectively.

We fly from Denver so are pretty much locked into what United will offer (which isn't much).

So every trip, I get creative on how to get to/from Hawaii without taking out a 2nd mortgage!

I think this year is a new high for creativity. Here is what I had to do.

At 300 days out, I began looking at fares daily. The fares were $900 per person for Saturday to Saturday. Not good so I looked into alternatives.

I opened up a Hawaiian Airlines card to take advantage of 35k FF miles and a 2 for 1 voucher. I did the same for my wife, thinking that I could book two of us on FF miles and 2 of us on 2 for 1. The only caveat is that Hawaiian does not fly to Denver. I would need to fly from Denver to one of Hawaiian's locations west of me (Bay Area, Vegas, Phoenix, Seattle, Portland, LAX, etc.). That would be easy to do with Southwest Airlines.

So we both got the card and qualified for the miles but when I looked, there were no round trips available to any of their airports. I then realized that you can book one way on Hawaiian so I booked 4 one way tickets on miles out of Sacramento. So we had a flight to Hawaii!

I looked at costs and found that one way fares on our return day were about $500 per person but if we stayed until Monday, it dropped to about $300. Given that, I rented some more points and booked two more days at Ko Olina to allow for us to go back on Monday. 2 more days in Hawaii

Next I put a daily email alert into Kayak for HNL-SAN, PHX, SJC, SMF, SFO, LAX, PDX, LAS and of course DEN. Other than Denver, Southwest provides a nonstop flight from all of those locations. I was watching a HNL to LAX flight for $300 per person on Hawaiian but it was stable so I kept waiting. I would also have to get a one way from LAX to DEN for about $100 per person.

This morning I my email alert showed a one way from HNL to DEN for $237.50 per person! I checked the flights and they were very reasonable flight times and connections so I pulled the trigger! $950 total plus the $22 for the mile's flights.

Last step is to buy the DEN to SMF on Southwest. Flights are around $140 per person right now so my total cost for 4 is looking to be around $1600 total or $400 per person! That is a pretty good deal!

Just thought I would share.

 

[Ty1on]

I hope you mean $1,600 Total

 

[jpc763]

I hope you mean $1,600 Total

Yes. Total. $400 per person. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[LisaH]

Excellent! I believe Alaska Air offers similar deal. Have you looked into that?

 

[Ty1on]

Yes. Total. $400 per person. Thanks for pointing that out.

That's darn good.

 

[jpc763]

Excellent! I believe Alaska Air offers similar deal. Have you looked into that?

Yea, I have been scouring their site as well. This flight is on Delta, which was a big surprise.

 

[MichaelColey]

I would think you could get from Denver to the west coast fairly affordably, and take advantage of low fares from there.

We're a family of 5, so I sympathize with your quest for cheap flights.

 

[silentg]

We are looking at fares from Orlando to Honalulu then Maui and back. I literally went cross eyed last night looking for flights. I have narrowed down to four or 5 flights. Trying to do Orlando to San Diego to Honalulu to Maui to San Diego to Orlando. Willing to try Orlando to LA to Honalulu to Maui to La to Orlando also. Want to try 1 st class if possible on part of trip. Anyone have a success story to tell for this trip. Expect to do this within a 12 day period!
Silentg

 

[jpc763]

We are looking at fares from Orlando to Honalulu then Maui and back. I literally went cross eyed last night looking for flights. I have narrowed down to four or 5 flights. Trying to do Orlando to San Diego to Honalulu to Maui to San Diego to Orlando. Willing to try Orlando to LA to Honalulu to Maui to La to Orlando also. Want to try 1 st class if possible on part of trip. Anyone have a success story to tell for this trip. Expect to do this within a 12 day period!
Silentg

Im not sure when you are going, but I got a Kayak notification that my April flight from Honolulu to Denver is down to $236 again.

J

 

[dsmrp]

We are looking at fares from Orlando to Honalulu then Maui and back. I literally went cross eyed last night looking for flights. I have narrowed down to four or 5 flights. Trying to do Orlando to San Diego to Honalulu to Maui to San Diego to Orlando. Willing to try Orlando to LA to Honalulu to Maui to La to Orlando also. Want to try 1 st class if possible on part of trip. Anyone have a success story to tell for this trip. Expect to do this within a 12 day period!
Silentg

In the past few years, we've been going to Honolulu and another island on our Hawaii trips. I found from West Coast that Hawaiian and maybe Delta gave the best fares for the 3 leg trip. If you're just doing carry-ons, I suggest looking at RT fares from Orlando to California, e.g. LA, SD, or SF etc. And add on RT fare from that city to HNL & Maui. Perhaps you can get cheap fare on Southwest to West Coast. Are the RT Orlando to Hawaii fares any better in comparison?

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

We are looking at fares from Orlando to Honalulu then Maui and back. I literally went cross eyed last night looking for flights. I have narrowed down to four or 5 flights. Trying to do Orlando to San Diego to Honalulu to Maui to San Diego to Orlando. Willing to try Orlando to LA to Honalulu to Maui to La to Orlando also. Want to try 1 st class if possible on part of trip. Anyone have a success story to tell for this trip. Expect to do this within a 12 day period!
Silentg

That is an itinerary that you can book entirely on Alaska except for the interisland hop, which means that if you get Alaska Airlines Signature Visa card you can do one of the tickets as a $99 companion fare (airport and security fees will still be added to the $99 fare). You can even do it multi-city, laying over in San Diego on your outbound and return if you wish. You can also route through Seattle if you prefer.

However, you can't do first class with a companion unless you pay a full upgrade fee for both travelers.

 

[klpca]

That is an itinerary that you can book entirely on Alaska except for the interisland hop, which means that if you get Alaska Airlines Signature Visa card you can do one of the tickets as a $99 companion fare (airport and security fees will still be added to the $99 fare). You can even do it multi-city, laying over in San Diego on your outbound and return if you wish. You can also route through Seattle if you prefer.

However, you can't do first class with a companion unless you pay a full upgrade fee for both travelers.

I find the coach seats on Alaska to be fine and with the cost savings I can't justify first class. YMMV.

 

[Sugarcubesea]

I'm on Hipmunk, Hopper and Kayak's alerts and so far for our August 2016 Hawaii trip all of the airfare from the midwest is coming in at $1K a ticket. I really hope it goes down because spending 5K on tickets might make mere think this vacation

 

[silentg]

We are traveling in June. Will look into Alaska airlines!

 

[Luanne]

We are traveling in June. Will look into Alaska airlines!

I found that by booking our Alaska Air flight through American I was able to get them cheaper. But that might have been because I was booking one way at a time.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I found that by booking our Alaska Air flight through American I was able to get them cheaper. But that might have been because I was booking one way at a time.

You can't use the companion fare booking through American.

 

[Luanne]

You can't use the companion fare booking through American.

I didn't have a companion fare.

 

[klpca]

I'm on Hipmunk, Hopper and Kayak's alerts and so far for our August 2016 Hawaii trip all of the airfare from the midwest is coming in at $1K a ticket. I really hope it goes down because spending 5K on tickets might make mere think this vacation

I don't know when in August you're traveling, but last year I canceled our Hawaii vacation for late July because the airfare never dropped below $800 per person from San Diego. I seem to remember that the price came down for travel in late August.

You may want to try to pick up an Alaska Airlines card, or two if your spouse wants to get one. That way you will have two companion fares that you can use.

 

[Sugarcubesea]

I don't know when in August you're traveling, but last year I canceled our Hawaii vacation for late July because the airfare never dropped below $800 per person from San Diego. I seem to remember that the price came down for travel in late August.

You may want to try to pick up an Alaska Airlines card, or two if your spouse wants to get one. That way you will have two companion fares that you can use.

I'm traveling mid August. The 13 till the 24

 

[dsmrp]

I don't know when in August you're traveling, but last year I canceled our Hawaii vacation for late July because the airfare never dropped below $800 per person from San Diego. I seem to remember that the price came down for travel in late August.

You may want to try to pick up an Alaska Airlines card, or two if your spouse wants to get one. That way you will have two companion fares that you can use.

$800 in July is outrageous! From Seattle i've only seen it up in the $800-1000range RT to Honolulu for Christmas to New Years. And now of course, President's day week. It was about $600 for mid August, and I was pricing only 2 months out. Excluding holidays, my 'sweet spot' for Honolulu fares has been anywhere from 3-5 months out. YMMV

I just got an Alaska air credit card, and was told anywhere from 2-3 weeks to get the companion fare discount code, online I think. I haven't checked yet. My last flight was on Alaska and their coach was definitely roomier than on Delta or Hawaiian.
I find their airfare generally higher tho'.

 

[klpca]

$800 in July is outrageous! From Seattle i've only seen it up in the $800-1000range RT to Honolulu for Christmas to New Years. And now of course, President's day week. It was about $600 for mid August, and I was pricing only 2 months out. Excluding holidays, my 'sweet spot' for Honolulu fares has been anywhere from 3-5 months out. YMMV

I just got an Alaska air credit card, and was told anywhere from 2-3 weeks to get the companion fare discount code, online I think. I haven't checked yet. My last flight was on Alaska and their coach was definitely roomier than on Delta or Hawaiian.
I find their airfare generally higher tho'.

Exactly how I felt. I rescheduled for this fall and have watched the prices religiously - and I still wound up paying $560. I think that I could have done better with a non direct flight, but I hate that layover in Honolulu. So I bit the bullet and paid more.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I didn't have a companion fare.

I know you didn't. My replay was really for the benefit of the person who was looking for alternatives.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I find their airfare generally higher tho'.

I fly a lot of Alaska out of SEA, and I've found that their fares are competitive.

Not always the cheapest (though they usually beat Southwest).

On the other hand, they are more comfortable. As I've often commented on other threads, when it comes to air fares people love to complain about how crummy air transportation is, but when given the choice between saving some money on air fare or having somewhat better accommodations, the traveling public invariably opts for lower air fares, while also maintaining the privilege of griping about service.

I'm willing to pay a bit more on occasion for the better service that Alaska provides.

 

[MuranoJo]

I used to love Alaska when I flew back & forth to Seattle a lot. Coming home late at night, the flight attendants were upbeat and funny and they served free (at the time) brews from the Seattle area. It's been a while.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I used to love Alaska when I flew back & forth to Seattle a lot. Coming home late at night, the flight attendants were upbeat and funny and they served free (at the time) brews from the Seattle area. It's been a while.

I presume that you were flying on Horizon, Jo, and yes Horizon still pours free beer and wine. Not quite as liberally, though, as they used to. On the SEA-BOI trip I could always count on a refill without asking. Now I have to ask, and they usually won't open a new bottle if just one person asks. In the past they would open the bottle, then walk through the cabin asking if anyone else wants a refill.

For wine drinkers they used to have both a red and a white. The last several flights, though, it's been only one or the other.